Round barrow on Skipwith Common, 800m south east of Adamson Farm

Reasons for Designation

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The barrow 800m south east of Adamson Farm, one of a group on Skipwith Common, has escaped disturbance from intensive agriculture which has affected the majority of sites in this region. Excavation of similar sites elsewhere have shown that round barrows demonstrate a wide range of burial rites from simple scatters of cremated material to coffin inhumations and cremations contained in urns, typically dating to the Bronze Age. A common factor is that barrows were normally used for more than one burial and that the primary burial was frequently on or below the original ground surface, often with secondary burials located within the body of the mound. Most barrows include a small number of grave goods. These are often small pottery food vessels, but stone, bone, jet and bronze items have also occasionally been found.

Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a pair of round barrows on the northern edge of Skipwith Common due south of a shelter belt of trees called South Moor Belt. The barrows on Skipwith Common have been investigated on a number of occasions by antiquarians. Their interest was concentrated mainly on the square barrow cemetery to the west, although the centre of the barrow, 800m south east of Adamson Farm has a depression which is the result of an antiquarian excavation. No excavations of the four round barrows on the common are recorded. However, Elgee in his 1933 `Archaeology of Yorkshire' notes the find of a Middle Bronze Age cremation urn on Skipwith Common. It is thought that this would have been removed from one of the round barrows, possibly by William Proctor and the Yorkshire Antiquities Club in 1849. The round barrow survives as an 8m-10m diameter mound standing up to a maximum of 0.8m above the bottom of a 2m-3m wide ditch on its western side. It is approximately 0.6m high compared to the general surrounding ground surface to the east and west. The ditch encircles the mound and survives as an infilled feature around the rest of the circuit. The mound is one of a group of four Bronze Age round barrows surviving as upstanding earthworks on Skipwith Common. Centred 1km to the west, there is a square barrow cemetery of Iron Age date which also survives as upstanding earthworks.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

30180

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Elgee, F, The Archaeology of Yorkshire, (1933)

Other
Typescript report, MAP Archaeological Consultancy, Skipwith Common Presentation Survey, (1995)

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